George J wrote:With one of them 10x digicam you really cant go beyond 6x without a tripod (even with image stabilization).
ummm... not neccessarily. You are using the x of the zoom and the lens' focal lenght interchangeably for all digi-cams and sensors - this is a common mistake.
The x quoted in the zoom multiple is not the same for every digicam - it depends on the the actual focal lenght of the lens, the sensor size and resultant focal lenght multiplier.
To start with, a 35mm film SLR 28-210 tele-zoom lens has a zoom factor of 7.5x - and a lens with a focal lenght of 210mm can certainly be used without a tripod! My nikon 8700 has a zoom multiple of 8x - this is based on the 35mm focal lenght equivalent of 35 mm - 280mm. I can certainly use it at 8x zoom without a tripod and visible camera shake.
The largest quoted x of a digicam is a multiple of the lowest focal lenght that lens is capable of.
For digicams you can calculate the focal length multiplier by dividing the diagonal of 35mm film (43.3mm) by the diagonal of the sensor. So in the case of the Olympus 750 the FLM is 6.57 (based on sensor size of 5.27mm x 3.96mm). Therefore I am guessing the actual focal lenght of the lens on that camera is 38mm/6.57 - 380mm/6.57 OR 5.79mm - 57.85mm. It should be printed on the lens or in the manual somewhere. Since the olympus 750's lens is a 35 mm equivalent of 38mm - 380mm - it is defined as a 10x zoom lens - ie 380mm / 38mm.
6x zoom for this camera is 38 * 6 = 228mm - useable without a tripod. 7x zoom is 38 * 7 = 266mm - also useable without a tripod. 8x zoom is 38 * 8 = 304mm - which will be pushing it a bit but useable with a VERY steady hand (also notice how the 8x zoom for this camera is 304mm while 8x on the nikon 8700 is "only" 280mm!?). I would not use this camera at > 8x zoom without a tripod, but anything less than that would not require a tripod.
By and large (using 35mm equivalent conventions) telephoto / zoom lenses which fall within the category of 80mm - 300mm can be used without a tripod. Camera shake becomes too large to control at focal lenghts over 300mm.
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To diplay some close-up images without camera shake, tripods or even zooming - I would take the image at the highest megapixel the camera was capable of then
crop the image to frame the subject within a 1024x768 size frame - viola an instant percieved 3x zoom in the case of images taken with a nikon 8700 at a resolution of 8 megapixels! I am using 1024 x 768 since this seems to be the a most often used screen size across PCs.
Cropping to frame the subject as opposed to resizing the entire image is your analogue equivalent of the focal length multiplier used in digicams. Of course this only works for images which do not need to be printed, and will only be viewed on screen.